This I Believe

Losing as a team is one thing. Losing while playing a good game is another thing. Losing when playing badly is a devastating way to lose. Losing while not contributing as much as you would like is the worst way of losing to me. I believe that you can take losing and use it as motivation though.

We lost in overtime to Glenbard West as a team freshman year, but I lost before the game had even started. I was not a starter for most of the season. It was my goal all season to start but I never got the chance. I thought going into the game against Glenbard West that I would get my chance to show the coaches and everyone else that I was very capable of starting. When Coach Stickels announced the starters, my name was not called and I was very disappointed. I knew that I had something to prove then, and that was that I would be a starter eventually. I played well that game against Glenbard West but it was still not enough to get my name announced before any of the games for the rest of the freshmen basketball season. After our last game I had one thing in my mind, and that was that I lost. I did not lose the game, I did not lose my playing time, but I lost by not achieving my goal of starting. I used that losing to motivate me for my new goal, which was starting on the sophomore basketball team the next season.

All spring and summer, I had the feeling that I lost when I knew I could have won. I had the feeling that I did not achieve what I wanted, but at the same time, I had a feeling that I could work hard for my new goal and overcome all those feelings of losing. I worked all off-season in all aspects of fundamentals and further improved my overall game. I finally knew all the hard work had paid off when I was in the locker room before our first sophomore game.

I felt revived and renewed. I felt as if my feelings had flipped upside down and my goal had come true. Coach Kopecky told us the starting lineup before our game and before I knew it I was having my name announced in front of the whole field house. I had achieved my goal and I knew that I only did it one way. I used the “lose” to my freshman goal as motivation, and believing in myself that I could achieve my new goal if I used that motivation in the correct matter. I believe that losing to my goal of freshman year and using it as motivation got to me achieve exactly what I wanted for the last two years, and that was to be a starter of LT basketball.

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This week’s essay

Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, lawyer Djenita Pasic enjoyed the peace of her religiously diverse country. But after the fall of communism and the outbreak of the Bosnian War, Pasic was forced to reevaluate her ideas about religion and tolerance. Click here to read her essay.